It takes two types of people working together to cause a depression:\u00a0 a poor dumb person who borrows more than he can pay, and a rich dumb person who loans him money without checking that it can actually be repaid.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither one can cause trouble on their own.\u00a0 It takes a conspiracy of fools to pull it off.<\/p>\n
In our country, a whole herd of rich dumb people loaned money to a whole herd of poor dumb people to go buy McMansions they couldn’t afford, and our economy crashed as a result.\u00a0\u00a0 Someone’s going to pay, the only question is who.\u00a0 Given that both the rich and the poor were collectively dumb, in a fair world the “stupid tax” would fall equally on both of them.\u00a0\u00a0 In a fair world, but not in this world.<\/p>\n
Unemployment primarily hurts the poor (the rich live off their wealth, not their income), and inflation primarily hurts the rich (because it reduces the value of their wealth; poor people don’t have any wealth to hurt).\u00a0 The Federal Reserve has a mandate to minimize both.\u00a0\u00a0 But it isn’t.<\/p>\n
Today we live in a world with 9% unemployment, and 1% inflation, and neither one have budged much in 2 years.\u00a0 The poor are paying the price, not the rich. \u00a0Inflation has rarely been lower; unemployment has rarely been worse.<\/p>\n
Yet politicians have spent the past two years (and I’m primarily looking at you, Republican party) fretting about inflation instead of jobs.\u00a0 it’s only within the past few weeks, as the public realizes we’re on the verge of another recession (and politicians realize that we’re on the verge of another election), that politicians has started begrudgingly talking about jobs.\u00a0 Not actually doing anything yet mind you, just talking.<\/p>\n
This goes against decades-old textbook economics (apparently our politicians don’t hold themselves to the same standards as the typical college freshman).\u00a0 Today our government can borrow for up to 7 years at *negative* real interest rates because savers are so scared of the economic outlook that they are *paying* our government to hold their money.\u00a0 Meanwhile, we have millions of unemployed sitting around doing nothing but collecting unemployment (assuming they haven’t run out yet).<\/p>\n
Textbook economics says borrow a lot of money while it’s cheap (making the savers happy), hire a lot of unemployed people (making them happy), and use them to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure (highways, bridges, schools, water, gas, sewer).\u00a0 Take people and money that are sitting unused, and put them to work while they can both be had cheap, and make investments in our country that will pay off in the long term.<\/p>\n
Fix the Internet, please.\u00a0 Our country *invented* the thing.\u00a0 Today we’re the laughing stock of the developed world.\u00a0 DSL came out 15 years ago, but my parents still have to use dial-up.\u00a0 Right now our country’s Internet network is ranked *27th* in the world.\u00a0 We’re behind such economic titans as Bulgaria and Romania.\u00a0 We need to step up. \u00a0 Let’s hire unemployed people to install high-speed Internet connections everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 It helps stimulate our economy today, and gives us a return on that investment for generations.<\/p>\n
There’s a saying that you should never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance.\u00a0 But as the years pass without action, as the poor continue suffering while the rich prosper, as our politicians continue collecting record campaign donations despite failing the majority, it’s becoming impossible to explain Washington’s actions as anything other than throwing the public good under the bus to pander to the rich.\u00a0\u00a0 The only time the average person seems to matter is the few months leading up to elections, after which politicians get right back to full-time pandering.<\/p>\n
Please note that I am not a wild crazy-haired hippy saying this.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m a moderate Republican with an MBA from Vanderbilt.\u00a0 But I’m honest enough to call a spade a spade.\u00a0\u00a0 It is time that our government worked for all of us, not just the people with the fattest wallet.\u00a0 Forget Wall Street.\u00a0\u00a0 Let’s Occupy Washington instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It takes two types of people working together to cause a depression:\u00a0 a poor dumb person who borrows more than he can pay, and a rich dumb person who loans him money without checking that it can actually be repaid.\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading